Showing posts with label college students. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college students. Show all posts

Monday, October 6, 2008

Visa Student Credit Cards: Plastics With Lessons

The answer is none, and this is precisely why visa student credit cards are so popular and addictive. When you're 18, beautiful, and restless, what could be headier than vast spending power at your fingertips?

With visa student credit cards, college students can easily swipe their merry way into a mile-wide list of purchases.

The Benefit
Visa student credit cards are highly popular because they're handy. You can use them to pay off student loans, for example, or gas up your convertible. You can use them to buy groceries, articles of clothing, furniture, and even plane tickets! Statistics show that the average college student owes at least $60,000 in student loans payable. Because no part-time job pays this much in a year, or even in five years, visa student credit cards are typically seen as manna from heaven.

The Catch
Even manna from heaven, however, comes with a catch. Consider this scenario. You are a student. You like something. You take out your credit card and swipe away. You go home crowing with glee over your purchase. If you think the story ends here and this way, you are sadly mistaken. Many college students forget that credit and payment go hand in hand. They buy and conveniently forget that what they take now, they would have to pay for later.

The fact that visa student credit cards grant their owners huge purchasing power only makes it worse. You would find it so much harder to restrain yourself from charging this and that.

Swiping Responsibly
If you are among those with visa student credit cards, make sure you avoid falling into debt by doing the following:

1. Pay on time.
If you have plans of moving, notify your credit card provider so they can update your contact information for you. Credit card bills frequently get lost due to errors in addresses. As much as possible, do not fall behind your payments. Some providers charge as much as $30 for late payments. Additionally, they bump up interest rates, too, if you miss one payment too many.

2. Do not ask for extra credit.
Extra credit will only lure you to borrow more. What you should do is look for visa student credit cards that come with a restrictive credit line. A restriction on your credit line, ranging from $500 to $4,000, will discourage unnecessary purchases.

3. If you don't want a restrictive credit line, why not secure a secured credit card instead?
The best thing about a secured credit card is that your credit limit hinges upon your savings at a certain bank. So, you never end up spending money you do not have.

4. Do not go crazy over cash advances.
Cash advance interest rates are typically higher. If you think they have the same rate as your swiped purchases, think again.

The ultimate purpose of your visa student credit card should be to rescue you in times of need, not push you into huge debt. Visa student credit cards should work for you, not against you.


Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Effective Ways On How To Keep Your Student Credit Card From Serious Debt

If look back in our lives, college would seem to be the time when we both get to enjoy our youth and being an adult. Most especially if you???re working your way through it. Nothing symbolizes the entry of adulthood and independence much better than being in college.

Couple this with the exuberance, the carefree ways and sometimes, the stupidity of youth, there will come a time when we get ourselves into trouble, especially when it comes to our finances. But we all know being an adult comes with a lot of responsibilities.

College is not just about having to study your lessons, write your papers and preparing for the exams, nor is it about having all the wondrous parties, hanging around with friends or maybe going around the mall looking for the perfect gadgets and outfits. We should all consider the bills we have to pay and all the other expenses.

Many of us in the past years have enjoyed the privilege and the benefits of having a student credit card. We are able to purchase almost everything we need even if we don???t have any money yet. But of course, a student credit card is not a gift check or the like. Every purchase that we charge to our student credit card must be paid at the end of the month when the bill comes in. If not, then instead of looking forward to a great and promising future when we graduate, it could be piles of debt that we may need to work hard for just to pay not only the capital, but also the mounting interest.

A lot of people may insist that there shouldn???t even be credit cards available for college students. Why? It???s obvious, a lot of college students are not just responsible having one yet. There are a lot of temptations around them and making purchases can be very tempting even when they don???t have the means to pay or afford it.

But then again there are some people who would argue that credit cards would help train them as adults and owning one would better prepare them for their future. Both have their points, but nevertheless, the student credit card is already here. So the next best thing is for parents, or the students on their own, employ effective methods to control their spending and keep them out of debt. Here???s a few ways on how to do it.

??? Prepare a budget before getting a student credit card. You must know how much you are able to pay for and revolve around it. List down all the necessary things you must spend your money on and only add luxuries if your income or allowance still allows it to.

??? Stick to your budget no matter what. If you think you don???t have the discipline to do so, dot get a student credit card, it???s too much of a temptation. Having a student credit card doesn???t mean you only have to pay the minimum, even though you can. This is the way the credit card company makes money; the less you pay the more interest you have to deal with.

Don???t ever splurge and pay for cash on purchases that you are able to. This is for things that can be quite expensive yet is really needed and can be used over and over again. Use your credit card only on purchases you can???t afford to pay cash for at the moment.

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Show a little self respect and prove to everyone that you're mature enough to take responsibility of your actions. Don???t go whining to your parents every month to take care of your balances. Be responsible and pay off everything that you charged by yourself.

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